Red Cliffs I. – Su Shih

First Prose Poem On The Red Cliffs In the autumn of 1082, on the 16th of the seventh month, Master Su and his guests sailed in a boat below the Red Cliffs. Clear wind blew gently, the water was calm. The boaters raised their wine and poured for each other, reciting "The Bright Moon" and …

Dreams Of The Tang Dynasty #17

#17 We boil spring water to make tea, Sitting on a grassy knoll above the water. The waterfall continues as it has always done, Ten thousand years with little change. How many lovers have sat as we have, Happy and content above this spring? I'm a cautious man, But this woman's a water dragon. She …

Dreams of The Tang Dynasty #10

#10 The first days after the fields are planted, Peasant families all walk the river bank. Young boys show off their strength, Seeing who can climb the tallest trees. Young girls sit with their mothers, On bamboo mats in the grass. Five old men sit on a rotten log, Drinking cool wine and talking about …

Dreams of The Tang Dynasty #2

#2 For XinMei Her skin is as white and smooth as cream. Her hair, like a dark storm. She dances to an old mountain tune Wearing nothing but a white gauze dress. The cool air blows in through her open windows While we drink wine, and I write poems on her thigh. Her husband is …

An Earthy Consummation of the Love in My Heart

Adderall sunshine lights me up Before a swift northeastern wind Cools me under black clouds. Aqua stains old poems When Bedouin rain drops Descend upon us from the dune like cumulus. The dust and sweat of China Wash down from the bill of my hat Mixing in with the Georgia red Like some earthy consummation …

December Days Under The Trees

When you get down to it, Life is two friends Sitting by a river on a cold day Reading the words of dead men And basking in the glory. ...................... There are times When your body shakes From the pulsing blood, From the conscious thought, That this is your life. There is nothing you can …

Flower Petals On The Sleeves

The sky far away Above cold mountain rocks. Wild birds Cry mournfully. The clouds flow A thousand miles down the river. The wanderer's long sleeves Are wet from flower petals. Twilight over a riverside village Where wine is mellow. When this night is over, Flowers will fall in that village. The heart is sad and …

Sundown Song

It's when the descending sun Is level with the curtain hook That spring along this river Is at its very best. Good smells surround the gardens Along the riverbank A column of smoke from the beach Where boatmen cook their dinners Steadily chattering sparrows Fight to roost in the evening trees Gnats and mayflies swarm …

Manhood

I've heard some say, Some alive, some dead, That they wished they could be A wolf, an eagle, or a lion. But I sit here on this rock, Blood running strong in my veins, Under the end of August sun, A young man, Free and with the world at my feet, Tell me, What more …

I Have a Blue Blanket

I have a blue blanket I remember it from my childhood, It goes with me in a bag In the trunk of my car And whenever I cant take The shit of this world I lay it down In the park Or on the river bank Or in the field at night After a wedding …

The Prophet and The Wilderness

I watch the people as they pass by my island Not one stops to look out on the water, Not one puts even a foot in, And that's all fine and well, But I wonder quite distantly, What meaning do they find in life? ......... When I am alone in the woods, I am not …

Sunday Waters

On a Sunday by the water Only the crickets make sound And only the dragonflies know I'm here. I go through my phone And I realize there's no one there But I have my books And I have my rock By the old rotten tree And I have a thousand songs Memorized in my head, …

The World and All Its Petty Offerings

I bask in this simple pleasure As I have done so many times before. A cup of earthy tea in my hand On a patio built forty years ago, But it is almost as though It were built for me. As though this moment were set aside, Ordained, A gift. Vibrant energetic life all around, …

Pulled From The Sea

The bird chirps its worship song The bird chirps its worship song. The bamboo knocks together, A living wind chime. I drink my black tea Hot and earthy. It tastes like the goodness God spoke of when He Pulled the land out of the sea, I sit, Quietly awestruck. Some people Some people, Are like …

The Signature of All Things (excerpt) Kenneth Rexroth

My head and shoulders, and my book In the cool shade, and my body Stretched bathing in the sun, I lie Reading beside the waterfall — Boehme’s “Signature of all Things.” Through the deep July day the leaves Of the laurel, all the colors Of gold, spin down through the moving Deep laurel shade all …

Memento Mori

Time flows through me like water carrying my life away slowly I dissolve cell by cell In its electric joy. Billions gone Were as we are now Worried about the trivialities That worry all of us. I sit - with a cup of hot tea Music soaked and warm on a cloudy winter day Looking …

Love and this Great Big River

Why all the  confusion About love today? I watch an old man With a smile on his face, Taking photographs of his wife As she feeds the geese. She laughs and shakes Her head self consciously. Are they any different than you and I? Besides the fact that they chose To love - when love …

How Much Of It Is Vanity

How much of writing is vanity? How much of it is bullshit? Which is from experience And which is pulled from the sky? How much of writing Is the gravel burning blisters on your feet How much of it Is the stars above the water at 3AM Or the dark eyed angel in your bed …

My Shadow Of Eden

Which do I long for more? Which do I want to hear, Standing in the woods alone, The music of man, Or the music of nature? I know not. I thank God for music all the same, And I long for you, my love, To hear, to see, to feel, What I, in this moment, …

Haikus

#1 You lie on God’s bed, Which is a soft grassy field, A sweet young flower #2 The goose has courage, More than most men I’ve met Standing guard its nest. #3 My spirit is here, Floating within this river, It quenches my fire. #4 I pray for the seed, That’s buried within your heart, …

The Wilderness: Living Life Deliberately

The wilderness, the mountains, the rivers, and streams, they are etched into a man’s soul. He cannot escape, only ignore them. A man needs the wilderness as much as he might need love. The wilderness and nature are the other things that balance out his heart. Men run around in a frenzy all their lives …